Arrowverse: Leagues
by ArlyssTolero
Summary: Oliver Queen has no moves left. Talia al Ghul, acting through her agent, Adrian Chase, has effectively forced his hand. But both the Emerald Archer and his former teacher have forgotten the generation of heroes he's inspired.


_**Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, or Supergirl. **_

_**A/N: This was a partly-formed concept when I was able to see "Avengers: Endgame" some months back, when I first posted this. The bittersweet feelings that movie left me with combined with my long-time resentment towards how "Arrow" and the universe it gave rise to have played out, and, well… I needed something 'happier'. **_

Arrowverse:

Leagues

By

ArlyssTolero

Oliver Queen stood in front of the display cases holding the uniforms of all those who had served on his team, be it as the Arrow or the Green Arrow, arms crossed as he maintained a stoic exterior, his blue eyes being the only thing to betray the depth of emotion he was experiencing as he examined each uniform, hearing the voices of those they belonged to in his head as he did so courtesy of the Red Death that had been coursing through his system for five years.

John Diggle, also known as Spartan. At one time he had only been Oliver's bodyguard, but he had come to be his confidant and, after the death of Tommy Merlyn, had become Oliver's closest male friend, a brother in all but blood. And like Tommy, John had come to see Oliver for what he truly was, something Oliver had tried to deny for months afterward. "_You don't trust. You don't love. You were able to fool Ra's and join the League because deep down you are every bit as dark and twisted as they are._"

Dinah Laurel Lance, also known as the Black Canary. One of Oliver's best friends since he was a child and eventually his first great love. A woman who had died, never knowing that she was wrong. She had always been the love of his life; it was why he hadn't been able to be with her. She deserved better than the monster the island had forged him into. "_Before the Hood, we didn't have copycat archers or earthquake machines._"

The next uniform had been shared by two people, both near and dear to Oliver's heart. One had been his sister, the other his apprentice and eventually a man with whom Oliver had shared a brotherly bond.

Roy Harper, also known as Arsenal. They had first met when Oliver was the Hood and had saved the former street hood from the Savior. He had gone on to become Oliver's apprentice, his partner, and eventually the scapegoat for Oliver's crimes as the Hood and the Arrow. "_I'm done, that's what's going on. Thea, she's out there, hurt or worse, because of one person, and that is not Slade Wilson! I believed in you._"

Thea Queen, also known as Speedy. Oliver's little sister. The girl in pigtails who had chased after he and Tommy, earning the nickname Speedy long before she became a warrior. "_He told me. Mr. Wilson. He told me your secret. How you've been lying to me for years. How could you not tell me Malcolm Merlyn was my father! I believed in you._"

Curtis Holt, also known as Mr. Terrific. If Oliver was honest, he had never cared much for Curtis. He was the epitome of the 'whiny Millennial' stereotype and he couldn't fight worth a damn. But he had had heart, and what he lacked in physical prowess he had made up for in his technological skills. Something that had come in handy after Felicity started working with Helix and ducking away frequently. "_You don't respect people. You don't know how to have partners. You don't build people up. You tear them down!_"

Rene Ramirez, also known as Wild Dog. A run-and-gun hothead. Rene had lacked the ability to see the bigger picture, something Oliver realized in hindsight had been the case for most of the recruits. But he had been committed to helping the city, and that was what Oliver had wanted if he was going to form a new team. "_Let me get this straight. You've got a to-kill list, and I'm the out-of-control one?_"

There had been others, of course, those Oliver had failed as a teacher, as a friend, as someone to lean on. His mother, Moira Queen, had died because his fear of being judged for what he had become had outweighed the fear of what Slade could do to those he loved, because if he didn't have his family anyways, Slade would already have won. To find out his mother had known who he was only hours before she was murdered had been what drove Oliver to turn himself over to Slade, unwilling to see his sister die the same way as their mother. "_Slade. You were on the island, with Oliver…_"

Helena Bertinelli, also known as the Huntress. Her father had killed her fiancé, believing Michael Stanton had been snitching to the F.B.I. when it had been Helena all along. This had set her on a path of vengeance and death, a path that had led her right into Oliver's path. Unlike Oliver, she had seen the truth of the matter, the truth of why their paths had intertwined. "_And what did your father do to you? Isn't the man in the hood fighting to set things right? Why is your vendetta more valid than mine? We're the same, you and I._"

Felicity Smoak. A woman who had earned a place in his heart because of how light and open she was, the exact opposite of the man he had become. And in the end, he had corrupted her, twisted her into a woman who didn't bat an eye at the idea of helping a cyber-terrorist group free their leader from custody. Adrian had been right in so many ways. Everything he touched was either corrupted or destroyed, because that was who he was. He was _darkness_, and he infected everyone around him with it, the very thing he had been afraid of and convinced himself the Hood and Oliver Queen were two separate people for. "_You don't trust me. After all these years, all the times I supported you, even when I didn't agree, you couldn't do the same for me._"

Evelyn Sharp, also known as Artemis. After the initial fallout of the reveal of the List, Evelyn had seemed to accept him and even talked to him more about why she reacted the way she did. It turned out that her father had seen the Hood as the beginning of the end for Star City and had joined H.I.V.E. for the vision of a better tomorrow Damien Darhk had promised. "_Because you're not a hero. You're a fraud. This city needs to be saved from you._"

Gulong Shado, the proper way to address someone in her culture, as he had learned during his time in Hong Kong. They had fought side-by-side, had loved one another, but when it came time to make a choice, he hadn't chosen the person who had helped him survive the island, but the woman who had betrayed him to Ivo. "_You can't fight what's coming. Put down your bow. Take off my father's hood._"

Gulong Yao Fei. The man who first tried to help Oliver survive the island. The man who had sent him to the man who would become both his brother and his greatest enemy. "_I am as real as your conscience. Shengcun. Remember? Survive. My dying wish for you after I gave my life for yours. But you squandered my sacrifice, and now my daughter, my dear Shado, is dead._"

Robert Queen. Oliver's father, who had entrusted to him the fate of their city. The man who had given his life to save Oliver's on that life raft, even going so far as to kill his bodyguard, David Hackett, as well. Robert had gone to Hong Kong, knowing he was challenging Merlyn and that Malcolm would act if he learned the truth. Whatever else Robert Queen had done in his life, he had given his life to try and stop the massacre Merlyn intended. "_You betrayed me, Oliver. I died so that you could live, and you threw that gift away. You made that sacrifice empty._"

Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke. Oliver's brother-in-arms but also his greatest enemy, the only person aside from Talia al Ghul who had known Oliver so completely that he had nearly destroyed Oliver and all those that he had sworn to protect as the Arrow. "_Oh, you're a killer. I know, I created you._"

Quentin Lance. A man who had both pursued Oliver and aided him in his vigilantism. A man who had served as a uniformed officer, a detective, a police captain, and finally as Oliver's deputy mayor. A man who had been the stern parent that Oliver needed, even when he didn't want it, because Robert and Moira were unwilling to force Oliver to grow up. "_You, Mr. Queen, are not a hero. You're a villain. But you know that, don't you?_"

Some of these people were dead. One of them was living in exile. Another was in prison. But most were now held captive by Oliver's former teacher. Oh, yes, Oliver knew who the true architect of the past year was. They had done a good job of selling that Adrian Chase, who had taken the name Prometheus, was the mastermind, but Adrian Chase (or Simon Morrison as he had been born) was a former mental patient who had had to be treated with anti-psychotics. That kind of mind simply wasn't capable of such a detailed plan, not without someone else reeling them in if they started to act out. Talia had kept Adrian grounded; this was her plan, her vengeance. She had just used Adrian as a smokescreen until Oliver confronted her, and even then, Oliver hadn't realized the truth, consumed as he was with the feelings of betrayal that not only had she trained Adrian, but that the man who had been tearing his life apart had been working beside him for so long and he had never even suspected.

Oliver was pulled from his thoughts when the computer beeped, having finished tracking the plane Chase and Talia had taken his family and friends on. Oliver checked the monitor and couldn't help the mirthless chuckle that escaped him. Lian Yu. Of course, that was where Talia would take them. Like Slade, she had a sense of poetic irony. Bringing Oliver's journey full circle by forcing a final confrontation on Lian Yu was exactly the sort of thing she would do. More than likely, she would recruit Slade, Harkness, and others that were locked away on Lian Yu, most of whom had been former members of some variation of the Suicide Squad. Combined with Black Siren, her own variation of the League, and the technological prowess of Helix (that E.M.P. keeping him trapped and his team distracted while Chase tracked down William was too convenient to be coincidence), and he was facing impossible odds.

Well, if this was going to be his last stand, than there were some things that needed to be done. First on the list… see if the new suit he had had Cisco working on was ready. He was going to need it.

_***DC***_

Barry Allen smiled softly to himself, if a bit sadly, as he watched the others mingling at S.T.A.R. Labs. Savitar had been defeated, but not without cost. Everything with Savitar had led Barry to the grim realization that he wasn't in love with Iris; he had been obsessed with her. His visit to the future and meeting the disconsolate version of himself, and how that version had finally found the hero inside of him again, had made Barry realize that this obsession had translated over into Savitar. It hadn't just been the loss of Iris that had destroyed the Barry he met in the future; it had been the way Caitlin's powers consumed her, what had happened to Cisco and Wally, all of it. But Savitar had become fixated on Iris because of Barry's own obsession with her. That didn't mean he hadn't tried to save Iris; she had still been his best friend for years, and that wasn't going to change. Savitar had ended up killing H.R. Wells, who had used his image-inducer to take Iris' appearance, and then it had been up to Barry, Wally, and Jesse Wells from Earth-2 to keep Savitar distracted long enough for the timeline to catch up when Savitar tried to enact his contingency.

That had left them with only one problem to solve: getting Jay Garrick out of the Speed Force _without_ destabilizing it. Barry and Cisco had reached out to Kara, and she had brought her sister, her cousin, her best friend Winn, and her Earth's Bruce Wayne (who it turned out was the Batman!) to help. Wayne, Winn, and Alex had worked together with Cisco and come up with the idea of using a quark sphere that would mimic Jay Garrick's energy signature since the Speed Force, at its most basic, was an energy field and would be focused on an energy signature, not DNA or anything else.

They had gotten Jay out and begun preparing a small celebration when the Legends (sans Mick and Amaya) had arrived, having been officially retired from the time travel business by Rip Hunter. Barry would admit to feeling a bit smug about that since they had made such a huge deal out of his mistake with Flashpoint. At least when he screwed up the timeline, he did it out of impulse and didn't _plan_ to do it like they had.

"Hey, why isn't Oliver and his team here?" Kara asked during a lull in the conversation.

"Have you met Oliver?" Cisco asked sarcastically. "That guy doesn't know the meaning of the word fun. As soon as we all finished with that thing in November, he pulled me aside and asked me to make him a new suit that could be a mobile weapons platform if he needed it." No one noticed how Wayne's eyes gleamed as he looked over at Cisco in interest, most focused on Cisco. "That was a pain in the ass to design, and I bet I get no thanks for it."

"So, it's ready then?" Oliver asked from the doorway, causing Cisco to jump and slosh his drink down his front. Clark and Wayne both examined the man in the doorway. Clark had heard how Kara compared this man to his friend, and told Wayne, who was interested in the fact that the Queen scion had ended up being like him on another Earth.

"Would it kill you to make a noise or something!?" Cisco demanded to know as most everyone present laughed, even those who didn't know Oliver and had been startled by his appearance.

"It's ready?" Oliver repeated, ignoring Cisco's complaint.

"Yes, it's ready, sans actually being field tested," Cisco said. "You're welcome," he added sarcastically as Oliver turned and left the room, heading for Cisco's lab. Barry hurried to catch up to his friend, trailed by Sara and Kara. For a non-speedster, Oliver was fast when he wanted to be and they found him in Cisco's lab, tapping the armored version of his suit on the arrowhead emblem that was the centerpiece of the breastplate. The uniform had been constructed using nanotechnology and packed itself into the arrowhead emblem, which Oliver pocketed before turning, only to stop when he saw Barry, Kara, and Sara.

"What do you need a mobile weapons platform for?" Kara asked curiously.

"In the past few years, I've had to fight an army of super-soldiers, an ancient society of assassins, a paramilitary cult bent on reshaping the world in their own image, and an alien invasion," Oliver said, "all with a bow and a finite set of arrows. I needed something to give me an edge."

"And what exactly are you up against that you need it?" Sara asked, concerned. "Especially since I'm guessing this is why Dad, Felicity, and Thea didn't answer any of my calls." Oliver moved to try and duck around them, but Sara moved in his way. "Ollie, Star City is my home, too," Sara said quietly. "If something's happening, let me help."

"I'm not going back to Star City, Sara," Oliver said quietly. "I'm going to Lian Yu." Barry somewhat understood what the island meant to Oliver, Kara had no understanding of its role in who Oliver had become, but Sara knew all too well what the island represented to Oliver. Oliver took the opportunity to duck around them, but Barry caught up to him outside of S.T.A.R. Labs. "Go back inside, Barry," Oliver said quietly.

"Oliver, let me, let _us_ help you," Barry begged quietly.

Oliver picked up his motorcycle helmet. "Barry, I told you once that you could be better than I was, could inspire others and be a symbol of hope," Oliver said quietly. "Everything I have done, all the battles I have fought, have led to this moment, Barry. This is where my road ends." Oliver put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Be better than I was. Be the leader that I saw in you, the leader I wanted to follow against the Dominators. Don't let doubt and darkness consume you like they did to me. Be better. Be stronger. Be _the Flash_." Oliver put his helmet on and straddled his Ducati. "Goodbye, Barry." The engine roared to life, and the Ducati took off down the street, and Barry stared after it, a tear trailing down his cheek. He didn't pursue Oliver but went back inside, steeling his own resolve. Oliver was stubborn as hell; but so was Barry.

He found everyone waiting in the Cortex. "Cisco, contact Lyla, I want to know what the hell has been happening in Star City and why we didn't hear anything about it," he ordered. Cisco nodded, opening a breach and stepping through it. "Ray, can you hack into satellites and get us an idea of what's waiting on Lian Yu?" Ray nodded, pulling up a chair and beginning to do just that, joined a second later by Winn. "Sara, is Oliver _always_ suicidal?" he asked the blonde woman, who started at the last word (which also earned the attention of others in the room).

"Uh, what do you mean?" Sara asked.

"When I spoke to him outside, he told me this is where his road ends," Barry told her, and Sara's already fair features turned a sickly pale, her freckles standing out even more. Kara's hand went to her mouth while Wayne (who was doing his own investigation with a computer console, focused on Star City rather than Lian Yu) narrowed his eyes but continued his search. "Sara, he doesn't plan on coming out of this alive, whatever it is."

"Felicity told me once that after Slade Wilson murdered his mother, Oliver tried to turn himself over to Slade to stop his vendetta," Sara said quietly. "He wouldn't even listen to her or John when they tried to talk him out of it. Oliver might be preparing for war, but if he's walking into this believing this is where his road ends, then he plans on giving his own life." Sara's eyes were wet as she remembered something. "A friend of ours once told Oliver and I that the essence of heroism is to die so that others can live. Oliver's always said he's not a hero. Maybe that's why. Because he always ends up surviving what should kill him while others die in his place."

"Survivor's guilt," Clark said grimly, unable to avoid looking at his cousin, whose cheerful mask had begun to break ever since she had ended the Daxamite invasion by using Lex's modified device. Mon-El had died soon after his mother had, and ever since Kara had been spending more and more time as Supergirl. James had all but thrown her out of CatCo when Barry asked for help, hoping spending time with Barry and the others from Earth-1 would help her. Clark turned his attention to Sara while Kara shot him a confused look, not sure why he had been looking at her like that. "Can we shake him out of it like they did?"

"No," Sara said quietly. "They weren't the ones to shake him out of it. The only person who could was murdered last year."

A breach opened, and Cisco exited, expression stormy. "Seriously, we need to work on a system that connects all of us," he grumbled. "Soon as this crisis is over, Ray, Winn, I want us to get together and come up with something to do that." They waved their hands in acknowledgement while Wayne smirked. He already had something like that. Clark saw his friend's smirk and rolled his eyes.

"So, what did Director Michaels say?" Professor Stein asked.

"Well, let's see," Cisco said. "First off, that Prometheus guy Oliver was dealing with? Not only was the guy posing as his D.A., but he was trained by Ra's al Ghul's oldest daughter, who also trained Oliver: Talia." Wayne looked up sharply at that, while Sara gaped at Cisco. She had met Talia when she was a young girl, and heard Nyssa speak of her older sister, who had abandoned her to forge her own path away from their father. "She wants revenge for Oliver killing her psycho father. She and Prometheus kidnapped everyone on Oliver's team, plus Quentin, Thea, and even found Oliver's kid and his mother."

"That's not all, is it?" Barry asked resignedly.

"Nope," Cisco said, his tone the kind of cheerful he saved for when he was covering up major anger, "that's just the beginning. Not only does this Talia chick got her own League of Assassins, she's also got Black Siren, Evelyn Sharp, and according to Lyla, Lian Yu's gone dark. Not only do they got Deathstroke and Captain Boomerang locked away there, but also some members of the Suicide Squad that they couldn't put back into the normal prison population." Cisco pulled out a list. "Let's see… Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Count Vertigo, our old friend from Earth-2 Doctor Light, and they had just shipped King Shark there." Cisco looked up into the horrified faces of the others in the room bleakly. "Oliver's not just walking into a trap. He's walking to his death."

"'This is where my road ends,'" Barry whispered.

Clark looked sideways at Wayne, who was gripping the sides of the desk he had been sitting at. The Joker on their Earth had recently killed Jason Todd, and Wayne had taken it hard. He had been more brutal of late. Now it looked like the doppelganger of the woman who had tried to seduce him more than once (with her father's blessing) had assembled a veritable army to take down the man responsible for the death of this world's Ra's al Ghul. Clark turned his attention back to the others. "Well, I don't know Oliver, aside from what I saw when he showed up," Clark said quietly, "but I'm not about to let anyone walk to their death. Especially when the lives of so many others are on the line, too."

"I'm coming, too," Kara said quietly, her mind having focused on one tiny detail. "Cisco said Talia and this Prometheus took Oliver's kid. How old is he?"

"Eleven," Barry said quietly. "Oliver found out about him a couple of years back. Then Damien Darhk learned about William and kidnapped him. Oliver sent William and Samantha into hiding to protect them from his enemies."

"Well, this time, we can offer them a place on Earth-38," Clark said. "That way, none of Oliver's enemies can get to them." Kara smiled at her cousin, who shrugged. It was the right thing to do.

"Who's this Black Siren?" Sara asked, and Team Flash exchanged nervous looks. "What?"

"Sara, there's no easy way to tell you this," Barry sighed. "Black Siren was one of Zoom's top lieutenants, a metahuman with a sonic scream that could level buildings. She's also Laurel's doppelganger."

"My sister?" Sara whispered. Jax, who was standing closest to Sara, put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Barry said quietly. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We just… we didn't know how, and we thought seeing a twisted version of Laurel so soon after she was killed…"

"I get it," Sara said after a moment, closing her eyes. "I'm pissed, but I get it." She opened her eyes again. "Right now, we focus on backing Ollie up."

"Ramon," Wayne said, startling Cisco. "I need to take a trip back to our Earth. I'd rather not deal with my alternate self to gear up. It'd take too long to convince him if we're anything alike." He ignored the surprised looks he was getting. In truth, he had been unsure about getting involved, until Kara had mentioned the kid, a detail he had missed thanks to his fixating on the detail about this world's version of The Joker being on Lian Yu. He could only imagine what that sadistic clown was doing to the people there.

"Gotcha," Cisco said, and Wayne stepped out from behind the desk as Cisco opened a breach. The two entered it, and it snapped shut.

"The good thing about the breaches," Barry said quietly, "is we don't have to try and catch up to Oliver. We just need to wait for him to arrive. Let's get ready. Ray, get us everything you can on what's happening on Lian Yu, so we know what we're walking into."

_***DC***_

Oliver, seemingly only in his civilian clothing, examined the clearing ahead of him. There were four cages there, each one containing a person: Samantha, Thea, Felicity, and Curtis. The armored figure of Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, and the trenchcoated form of Digger Harkness, aka Captain Boomerang, were there as expected, but there was also a blonde woman with bleached skin, pink-streaked blonde hair done in ponytails, carrying a mallet that Oliver recognized from A.R.G.U.S. files as Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, and a giant scaly being that had once been a man but now resembled a crocodile. Oliver had heard of this man from Lyla: Waylon Jones, aka Killer Croc. Judging by the way he was leering at Thea, the smallest of the four prisoners, Oliver guessed that the reports he had come to have a taste for human flesh were not exaggerated. Oliver's eyes drifted up to the trees: there were six figures up there, two of them being Talia and Evelyn.

Squaring his shoulders, Oliver exited his cover and entered the clearing. Instantly, Harkness raised his guns and Slade drew his sword. Quinn fingered her mallet but did not heft it, while Killer Croc turned away from examining the 'caged prey'. Oliver ignored the other three, focusing on the last one. "You even _look_ at my sister like she's your next meal again, you overgrown handbag, and I'll rip your hide off and have a friend turn it into a new suit," Oliver calmly informed the creature from Gotham City. Despite the fact they were on opposing sides, Harkness smirked at the imaginative threat and Quinn cackled.

"Seems you've not lost your taste for blood after all," Slade rumbled from behind his mask. "And here I thought you had let your connections weaken you."

"That's what you and the people hiding up there," Oliver jerked his thumb upwards, "never understood. My friends and family don't _weaken_ me. They're my strength." Talia, Evelyn, and the other assassins dropped to the ground.

"And yet you walk into this clearing, unarmed and unarmored," Talia said coolly, notching an arrow in her bow and aiming it at Oliver's chest. "Rather foolish."

"Says the woman who used a mental patient as a shield for her own actions," Oliver returned, smirking as surprise flitted across Talia's features. "Adrian is a very direct person, Talia. When he goes for the jugular, he doesn't dance around. Or I guess I should say, didn't. I'm guessing he's outlived his usefulness. Taking all those I care about, bringing them to the place where I was reborn? That's the tactic of a Demon." Oliver lifted his chin. "You forget. I wasn't just your student. I was your father's, too."

"Very clever, Oliver, but it does you no good," Talia replied. "Words will not save you and there is only so much resistance you can put up without arms or armor." Talia fired at the same time Oliver slammed his hand against his chest, leaving a pendant in the shape of an arrow there. A rippling green metal spread out in a wave over Oliver's body, forming a shell around him and he caught Talia's basic lethal arrow in armored fingers before crushing it as the nanites finished their work.

"**In the past few years, I've dealt with Mirakuru soldiers, the League of Assassins, H.I.V.E., and aliens,**" the Emerald Archer said, his head protected by a metallic hood and face mask and a black visor which studied his enemies, the H.U.D. giving him a summary of the weak points. "**I thought it was time for an upgrade.**" The Emerald Archer raised his left arm, clenching his fist, and a red beam shot out of it, striking the nearest assassin and ripping a hole right through them. The Emerald Archer rushed forward to engage the assassins, Talia retreating with Evelyn while Quinn, Killer Croc, and Harkness engaged the Emerald Archer along with the assassins.

The Emerald Archer blocked the attack of an assassin and delivered a straight punch to the assassin's chest. A crunching sound came as the assassin went flying, their chest crumpled inward by the strength enhancements in the suit. The Emerald Archer had wanted this designed to take on aliens if need be, and with the numbers he was facing, he had had no interest in it being a fair fight. The Emerald Archer performed a sweep kick, knocking the three remaining assassins to the ground before leaping up into the air and firing explosive darts from one of his wrists. The darts struck their targets: the three assassins and Harkness' chest. A moment later, the darts detonated, leaving charred masses as the Emerald Archer landed.

"_I will carve your suit open like a canned good,_" Killer Croc snarled as he lunged forward. The Emerald Archer gripped the mutant's shoulders and launched himself up and over the mutant, coming down in a crouch before upper-cutting Harley Quinn and she rushed forward with her mallet. The Emerald Archer turned as to face Killer Croc and unleashed his laser again, striking the mutant in the legs and crippling him. The Archer rushed forward and wrapped his legs around Croc's neck as he perched on the mutant, hands gripping Croc's lower and upper jaws.

"**No one hurts my sister, you freak,**" the Archer said, and pulled Croc's jaws apart wider than even his mutation allowed. The Archer landed in a crouch and rose as the mutant's body collapsed, covered in green and red blood. "**I've proven I can wipe out everything you can throw at me, Talia,**" the Archer told his old teacher. "**Yes, you may kill me in the end. But how many will you lose in each successive attempt? How many innocents will die for your bloodlust?**"

"I presume you have a proposition, Oliver," Talia replied coolly. "Let's hear it."

"**You let my family and my friends leave this island unharmed,**" the Archer replied coolly. "**My son and his mother live in peace. My team continues to protect Star City. My sister, Felicity, Quentin… they go about their lives unmolested. In return, you get me, to do with as you please. No tricks. No weapons. No armor. Just me.**"

"An interesting proposition," Talia mused. "Everyone gets what they want and the only one who dies aside from those you've killed already is you." Talia gave Slade a look as he shifted slightly before turning to face Oliver again. "You've made one miscalculation in all of this, Oliver."

"**Which is?**" the Archer asked even as Slade threw a grenade from his bandoleer. The Archer caught it, having expected Slade to try something. But when the grenade detonated milliseconds later, it wasn't the typical explosion. Instead, it was an electrical charge that surged to cover a finite area, an area in which the Archer stood. The suit he wore disassembled, the pendant it had formed from lying on the ground before him, scorched and blackened.

"You assumed that we didn't know of your 'mobile weapons platform'," Talia replied to the Archer's comment. "Every hoop we've put forth, you've jumped through, including this one. Combined with your general tendency to not ask for aid, and it was a certainty that even if your allies elsewhere were available, you still wouldn't reach out to them even if you had the chance. And you didn't. You walked right into S.T.A.R. Labs to get this weapons platform and not only didn't ask for aid, you refused it when your friend Mr. Allen offered." Talia looked over at Slade. "Do what you wish, but don't kill him. I am reserving that pleasure for myself."

"As you wish," Slade replied before walking over to Oliver, who didn't waste time and snatched up the sword of one of the fallen assassins. "Good, this would be less entertaining if you didn't put up a fight," Slade chuckled, and swung his sword. Oliver deflected it, sinking into his training from Ra's. In the past, when Oliver had fought Slade blade-to-blade, Slade had always had the superior advantage, but that was before Oliver had been trained by the Demon's Head to take his place. Ra's al Ghul had spared no expense in ensuring Oliver was ready to take the mantle. He hadn't just taught him to fight; he had brushed up on his tactics, his ability to manipulate others, moving world events from the shadows, and so much more. You didn't become the Demon's Head by simply being the best warrior; you had to be more.

The dance of blades that Oliver and Slade now engaged in showed how much Oliver had taken his training under Merlyn and later Ra's to heart. Even unarmored, Oliver was more than a match for Slade at this point. But Slade didn't have to expend as much effort as Oliver did in deflecting attacks, his armor absorbing most of them, and those that it wouldn't he deflected easily. Eventually, Oliver's arms began to tire, and Slade looped his former friend's sword with his own, throwing it away into the brush before slashing at Oliver's undefended face. The blade sliced through Oliver's cheek and right eye, and Oliver couldn't help the scream of pain and his hand went to the cut automatically. Slade took advantage of this and delivered a right hook to Oliver's jaw, spinning him around, followed up by a kick to the back of Oliver's knee that drove him to the ground, his knee dislocated, as Slade sheathed his blade.

"Now, the real fun begins, Mr. Queen," Slade rumbled, circling around Oliver and kicking him full in the chest. Oliver was sent to the ground, gasping, and tried to stand. He did so, shakily, and threw all his might into a punch to Slade's helmet, which barely moved. Slade gripped over by the collar and delivered blow after blow to his chest with an armored fist before Oliver's twisted leg gave out and he could stand no more. Slade allowed him to fall and shifted his target to Oliver's face, beating him savagely. "I should have done this the first time we met," Slade told him, picking the broken and bloodied man up in a fireman's carry before walking back towards the cages and dumping Oliver's beaten form in front of the cages.

Oliver tried to push himself up slightly, turning his head to look up at the cages, even though he couldn't see with one eye taken by Slade's sword and the other eye swollen shut by the beating Slade had delivered. If he could, he would see the despair and heartbreak on Thea and Felicity's faces as they watched him be beaten by the man he once called brother, the anguish on Curtis Holt's face as he finally understood why Oliver had been so hard on them all in his training early on, and that Samantha had turned away. But Oliver's hearing was still good, and he could hear the shuddering sobs from Samantha, the gasping of Thea as she tried to control her emotions, the sobs of Felicity and her whispering his name over and over, and Curtis pounding on the cage with his fist.

Soft footsteps approached, and Oliver could hear a blade clearing its sheath. "For what it's worth, Oliver, I'm not doing this because you killed my father," Talia told him as Slade picked him up again, holding him upright, the back of his neck exposed for Talia's sword. "I'm doing this because you handed the League over to a man who used them as a private guard, and when you took the power back, you handed it to my sister, who destroyed everything she had ever known. The man I trained in Russia would have taken the title of Ra's al Ghul with pride. I will mourn him and destroy everything that the shallow reflection you've become has created." A whistling sound reached Oliver's ears as something sailed through the air, and then Talia cried out in pain, her sword landing on the ground with a clatter.

"Impossible," Talia breathed out, in both pain and awe, as she stared at the object that had pierced her hand. A figure clad in black glided down from the treetops, landing a few feet away, fixing a dark glare on Talia. "Bruce…"

"**Not the one you know,**" the Batman rumbled, his voice modulated. "**You made one miscalculation yourself, Talia. You underestimated the loyalty the Green Arrow has inspired in his people.**" Portals opened, one after another, and a small army emerged from them, some on the ground, some in the air. A portal opened behind the Batman and he stepped backwards through it; he had another matter to take care of.

The Flash raced out of a portal, grabbing Deathstroke and running the armored man away from his friend before racing back and catching Oliver as he fell. "We got ya, man," The Flash said as the Atom flew towards Deathstroke, firing his weapons system at the armored man and the White Canary engaged Talia, who took the sight of her one-time mentor siding with her wayward student rather personally. Caitlin Snow, who had stuck around after Cisco and Barry both told her that because she had been there for them when they faced their demons, they were going to be there for her while she faced hers, rushed to where The Flash was holding Oliver. "I'll see what I can do here, you should head for the monastery and help everyone else," Caitlin told The Flash, who nodded and took off in a blur of gold lightning.

_***DC***_

"Now, let's see if I got this right," the insane Clown Prince of Crime heralding from Gotham City said, tapping his chin with the flat side of the butterfly knife he was currently wielding, as he examined Dinah Drake, who was tied spread-eagled on a table in the center of the room, divested of her clothing and gagged. A partially-done 'sketch' on her stomach oozed blood, and tears had the mascara staining her cheeks. "You decided to join a wanna-be Robin Hood and take the name of a dead bird because of, what, some misguided desire for redemption? Let me tell you, toots, redemption isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've seen more than one man come and go from Arkham, supposedly cured, only to snap a few weeks out into the real world and revert." The Joker stretched out and added another section the sketch. "No, what you need is to just accept who you are deep down. You're a murderer, a loon, someone who loves to tear people apart with those lovely piped of yours." The Joker added another bit to the sketch. "Don't worry yourself, little lady. I'm gonna help you free yourself."

"**Don't count on it,**" a dark voice said from the shadows, and The Joker whirled, pulling a gun and firing in the direction of the voice, which only laughed. "**Seems it doesn't matter what world you're in, Jeremiah,**" the dark voice continued, jumping from location to location as The Joker fired wildly, "**you can't control your impulses.**"

"Ooh, are you one of those dimension-hoppers I've heard about while I've been here?" The Joker said. "It's sad you're so similar. I'd hoped to find one of you that understood how much we mean to each other, that we are truly brothers."

A batarang spun out of the darkness, impacting The Joker's hand, a moment later, the Batman descended from where he had been crouching in an alcove above, disarming The Joker of his butterfly knife. The Batman grabbed The Joker and proceeded to savagely beat the other man, venting his rage at The Joker from his Earth on this doppelganger, and leaving Earth-1's Joker a broken, bloody mess, who despite it all smiled at him happily. "I knew there was something twisted inside of you, Brucie," The Joker said happily. The Batman's response to this was a solid kick to The Joker's head, knocking the psychotic Clown Prince of Crime out before he moved to the table and undid the gag and bindings. "Thank you," Dinah Drake told him shakily as she retrieved her clothes and dressed. "What now?"

"**Don't thank me,**" the Batman said before releasing a knock-out gas into her face. She slumped to the ground. "**You have some questions to answer,**" he finished, looking at the unconscious woman. Sara Lance's off-hand comment about the woman Oliver had recruited onto his team with the same power as the metahuman Black Siren and sharing her mother's maiden name had set alarm bells ringing in Batman's mind, especially when they found out the woman's real name according to police records was Tina Boland. The Flash had even spoken with Captain David Singh, the man who had been Boland's supervisor, to confirm her real name and that there was no unusual circumstances. Singh had confirmed her real name was Tina Boland. Because of this, the united heroes from Earth-1 and Earth-38 had chosen to keep Boland confined until they could find out what she had really been doing all this time.

_***DC***_

Black Siren smiled smugly as she whistled, sending John Diggle crashing against the wall. "I told you not to give me that look, Johnny," Black Siren told the man mockingly, ignoring the glares from Kicked Puppy, or whatever his ridiculous hero codename was, and her dimensional father. Honestly, this was what her father had turned into on this side? This Earth's Lance family were so pathetic, so weak. Her father had stared down Frank Bertinelli and told him to go to hell, even knowing what the cost would be, and been burned alive in front of her for it. Her mother had died when she and Sara were children, and Sara had come out alright, marrying Tommy Merlyn. Black Siren had almost had the same happiness her sister had had, if not for Robert Queen killing his son because Oliver wanted to come back to her.

"Can't help it," John Diggle panted as he stood slowly. "I'm wondering how any version of Laurel Lance could become the twisted psycho bitch you are."

"Oh, you say such sweet things," Black Siren said mockingly before she walked up and straight-punched Diggle in the face, breaking his nose. "if anything, I'm the _superior_ Laurel Lance. The one from this Earth was a pathetic child who refused to understand the world is an ugly, dirty place and the only way to survive is to get ugly and dirty yourself." Black Siren threw a smirk at Quentin Lance, who was glaring at her. "Guess Frank Bertinelli did me a favor, burning my father alive in front of me. Oh, and one last thing, Johnny… my name is _Dinah_." She hit Diggle with an uppercut, and then scowled as she heard the whoosh of air and the crackle of electricity. "Well, well," she sneered, turning to look at The Flash, who was staring at her grimly. "You really are a dumb one, aren't you, Red? I held back when I fought you because Zoom wanted to finish you himself."

"Maybe I can be stupid," The Flash said quietly, "but I can learn. Zoom was a monster, but he also didn't give specifics when he wanted something done. You could've targeted apartment buildings full of sleeping families last May. You didn't. Why?"

Black Siren's sneer faded to one of surprise, and then finally consternation. "A year," she said. "It took you a _year_ to think of that."

"To be fair, it was Sara who asked me," The Flash admitted. "But it got me thinking. You can tear buildings apart, and Zoom got what he wanted from me, and he didn't want me to get my powers back. He tried to stop that from happening. He didn't want someone who could potentially stop him. So, he wouldn't have given a 'no one kills him but me' order. You tore down nearly-empty buildings and drew out our fight until someone intervened. You _wanted_ me to live, and you _wanted_ me to save those people."

"Congratulations, Flash," Black Siren replied, dropping her arrogant, sneering villainess routine. "You actually used your brain. I'm guessing that a whole bunch of you hero types showed up to help this world's Oliver?"

"He didn't want it, but he needed it," The Flash replied.

Black Siren removed the cuffs from Diggle, Rene, and Quentin. Diggle stared at her suspiciously. "A little clue, Johnny boy," she said quietly. "I graduated from the Amanda Waller School of Deception." That meant very little to Rene and Quentin, but Diggle knew exactly what that meant, and his eyes widened in realization. She nodded. "That's right. I work for A.R.G.U.S. My mission was to find a way to bring Zoom down by any means necessary."

"Damn, Waller teaches her agents how to fool people," Diggle muttered. "First Oliver with the League, now you with Zoom. She doesn't kid around."

"There are people in this world who deal only in extremes, and it is naïve to believe anything less than extreme measures will be enough to stop them," Black Siren replied before turning to The Flash. "I would apologize, but frankly, you locked me in a cell without questioning me for _months_. I was going to abandon Chase as soon as I could, but then Queen did the same damn thing. This wasn't about wanting to serve psychopaths. This was about survival on a strange world, and I won't apologize for it."

"So, uh, what you said about Laurel…" Quentin hedged.

"More misdirection," Black Siren replied calmly. "And maybe a bit of jealousy. She had the life I had hoped to have before my father was murdered. After that, everything became about getting justice by any means necessary. After I was changed and got my revenge, Waller found me." She turned to The Flash. "So, Red, what now?"

"We're mopping up the assassins now," The Flash replied. "But one thing we still need to know. Where's William?"

"There's a boat on the western docks," Black Siren replied. "Talia was planning to kill everyone and take the boy to Nanda Parbat, train him to be the perfect Demon's Head." The Flash nodded and raced away. Black Siren turned to face the others. "Don't expect me to apologize," she told them blandly, before walking away. Diggle shook his head in disbelief; what was it with Amanda Waller and taking relatively decent people and turning them into psychopaths? Rene and Quentin exchanged looks and started walking after Black Siren, Diggle following a few seconds later. It wasn't like he knew this island…

_***DC***_

Superman, Supergirl, and Firestorm had mopped up most of the assassins and captured Dr. Light when she tried to 'fry' Supergirl, only to recharge the Kryptonian. "Thanks," Supergirl had cheerfully told the fugitive from Earth-2 before knocking her out with a pat on the head. Superman and Supergirl had just finished taking down King Shark when Batman returned with The Joker slung over one shoulder. Tina Boland had already been transported back to S.T.A.R. Labs by Cisco Ramon and put in one of their containment cells in the pipeline. A breach opened and Dig, Quentin, Rene, and Black Siren walked out; they had been given the heads-up that Siren was an undercover operative for Earth-2's A.R.G.U.S. by Barry Allen, who arrived seconds after the group from the monastery with William, who was pulled into his mother's arms.

Thea Queen and Ray Palmer were standing victorious over Slade Wilson; Thea had used one of her own shoelaces to choke the former A.S.I.S. operative out after Ray had used an energy web from his suit to restrain Wilson's mobility. Talia had been knocked out by Curtis of all people, who had picked up a branch as soon as he was free and bashed the oldest 'Heir to the Demon' over the head while she fixated on her one-time mentor, Sara Lance. She was now bound tightly with Sara and Firestorm standing watch over her.

"I've done what I can here," Caitlin Snow said, bringing the attention to her and the downed Oliver, "but he needs proper treatment."

"We'll get him to an A.R.G.U.S. facility," Diggle said. "Lyla will want to get all of these people into custody." He looked around, frowning. "Where's Evelyn?" Rene looked around, noticing the same thing Dig had. Almost everyone who was still alive (namely those Oliver hadn't personally dealt with) was bound or otherwise subdued, but Evelyn was nowhere to be found.

An arrow sailed out of the trees, striking Felicity Smoak in the heart. Another arrow sailed down, this one aimed at William, who stared at it wide-eyed even as his mother grabbed his shoulders to pull him into a protective crouch. Then Supergirl landed in front of the Clayton duo, raising her cape as a shield as Superman took to the skies, searching the trees. Batman threw batarang after batarang to intercept Evelyn's arrows, The Flash intercepting the few that slipped past the Dark Knight's expert aim, and then Superman was descending, the unconscious form of Evelyn Sharp in his arms. "It's saddening to see someone so young already consumed with so much hatred," Superman said quietly as he lowered the eighteen-year-old girl to the ground, Sara stepping forward with ropes to bind her. Then he and Supergirl both cocked their heads to the side. A moment later, the others noticed what the Kryptonians' enhanced senses had picked up.

The sound of helicopters could be heard in the distance; A.R.G.U.S. had arrived.

_***DC***_

**Two Months Later**

Oliver Queen entered the Hall of Justice, the hangar that S.T.A.R. Labs owned and which had been turned into the unofficial headquarters of the united heroes, leaning on a cane and still getting used to the limited vision he now had, an eyepatch over his missing eye which didn't hide the ugly scar that started above his brow and descended below the eyepatch, ending halfway down his right cheek. Beside him was Dinah Laurel Lance of Earth-2, who had reported back to her Earth's A.R.G.U.S. before returning to Earth-1. Without the deception in place, the two had begun to bond over their shared experiences, even if it had been under different versions of Amanda Waller. Dinah had become a rock Oliver could lean on. Oliver stopped in the entrance of the hangar, smiling softly as he saw the others there.

Cisco Ramon, Curtis Holt, Winn Schott, and Ray Palmer were gathered in a group, talking about something only someone with a 200+ IQ would probably understand. Caitlin Snow and Barry Allen were talking with Professor Stein and his wife, Clarissa, enjoying flutes of champagne. Clark Kent was present with his girlfriend, Lois Lane, and Kara had brought James Olsen, whom she had begun to explore a relationship with after finding her balance between Supergirl and Kara Danvers. Samantha and William, who now lived in National City on Earth-38, had also come and William was hanging out with Rene's daughter, Zoe, the two children running around and laughing.

Bruce Wayne was standing apart from everyone else, a woman with dirty blonde hair on his arm and looking around speculatively, like she was assessing the worth of everything around them. Rene was talking with Thea and Roy Harper, who Oliver had gotten a pardon for from the president, finally choosing to cash in on the good will he had earned for fighting against the Dominators. Jefferson Jackson, Wally West, and Jesse Wells from Earth-2 were all goofing around. Harry Wells from Earth-2 was standing off by himself, muttering indistinctly as he tapped on a tablet.

John Diggle was not present, having left the life behind and joined the F.B.I.; losing Felicity, whom he had come to see as a chance of making up for his inability protect Andy, had been the last straw for the man. That, and the fact Oliver had so easily forgiven Dinah for her deceptions. In truth, even if he had been invited, Diggle wouldn't have come here; not after Oliver had decked him for making a Joe West-style comment about him and Dinah being 'psychopaths'.

Speaking of psychopaths who had used the name 'Dinah', the questioning of Tina Boland had revealed that she had joined the team to be a dagger in the dark for an organization known as the Ninth Circle, who were led by Oliver and Thea's half-sister (who was closer in age to Oliver than Thea, having been born only a couple of years after Oliver himself), Emiko Hadachi. As Thea had put it later once they got all the information from Boland about Emiko and the Ninth Circle, Emiko's vendetta was the biggest case of sibling rivalry ever; she wanted to destroy Oliver and everything he held dear because Robert Queen had refused to acknowledge her or allow her to work at Queen Consolidated. Boland had been incarcerated with Talia and the rest of the 'Big Bad' types on Lian Yu; the assassins Talia had employed had been broken up across several different black sites.

The group quieted as they noticed Oliver standing in the doorway. Oliver walked in, grimacing as he had to lean heavily on the cane, and Barry walked forward. "It's great to see you up, man," Barry told him, giving him a one-armed hug, before giving a nod to the woman on his left. "Dinah."

"Barry," Dinah returned. Oliver ignored the byplay between them, instead focusing on one face as he walked forward, his cane clicking. He stopped in front of William, who, along with Samantha, had been taken to Earth-38 while Oliver was still healing from the beating he took from Slade. He hadn't wanted his first official meeting with William as his father to be when he was in such a sorry state.

"Hello, William," Oliver said softly, looking down at his son with his remaining blue eye, which was shining with an unshed tear. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you who I really was all the times we met."

"Mom told me why," William said, "and I kinda figured it out even before." Oliver raised his eyebrows as Samantha smiled. "Mom's really protective. You weren't dating. So the only reason she'd let a grown man hang out with me is if he was my Dad."

"Well, clearly, you got your mother's brains," Oliver chuckled, patting his son's shoulder.

"Pretty sure he gets that deductive reasoning from you, Oliver," Samantha said quietly, walking over. "Come on. Let's all join the festivities."

"Before we get started, I want to say something," Oliver said, raising his voice. Those that had been talking quietly to give Oliver and William privacy turned to face the one-eyed archer. "Two months ago, you all came to help me, without hesitation. You didn't have to. Some of you didn't even know me. I won't forget that. I may not be the man I used to be but know that if any of you ever need help, I'll be there for you, the way you were there for me when I was broken." Oliver took the champagne Barry offered him. "Talia wanted to destroy me, destroy all of you, because I had replaced her father's League with something else, something better. Not a League of Assassins or a League of Shadows, but a league dedicated to one thing. Justice."

"A Justice League," Barry said. "It's got a nice ring to it."

"That it does," Clark Kent said quietly. He raised his glass. "To the Justice League."

"The Justice League," the crowd chorused, drinking to the toast.


End file.
